


dead flies in the summertime

by overcapitalized



Series: off to find another way [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 08:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18340424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcapitalized/pseuds/overcapitalized
Summary: Klaus is The Seance, which is almost like being The Witness. Either way, itsucks.~An Umbrella Academy AU where they all have each other's jobs.





	dead flies in the summertime

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to thedeserttree for helping edit and putting up with my nonsense. Any remaining mistakes are mine alone, and have a bounty on their heads.

Klaus wanted so badly to forget it. But no matter who or what he did, no matter what he drank and smoked and snorted, he couldn’t not remember.

It happened on a mission. One of the annoying ones too, where Klaus was left behind in another room to look out. He didn’t bother to ask what exactly he was supposed to be looking out for. They had probably just wanted to leave him behind.

His power wasn’t exactly good for the offensive. Or defensive. Or strategy or espionage or _anything._ You know, that old saying about bringing a seance to a firefight. Maybe as a distraction. But he was distracting his team as often as he was distracting anything else.

Anyway, Klaus was in another room, so he didn’t know when the tide of the fight turned. He heard later that there was some sort of robot army involved. (He bravely resisted the urge to ask about robodicks. He was pretty high.)

Apparently, it got so bad that Ben had to get involved. He usually only fought hand-to-hand, and they only used his powers when they absolutely had to. Ben didn’t like it, the barely-controlled things he could summon and carnage they caused. Klaus could only hear the wet smacks and metallic groans. Probably there was going to be more property damage and another lecture about not letting Ben fix their fuckups. (last time, Klaus had tried _“But he likes it,”_ as a defense. It had not gone well.)

It was going on longer than usual, nearly a minute and a half. Then, a louder flickering electric sound, and the organic sounds stopped. The crackle of too-much, too-deadly electricity was the loudest noise. Klaus couldn’t tell the future, he wasn’t _that_ kind of psychic. But he knew that something had gone horribly wrong.

Klaus didn’t remember getting to the room, but suddenly he was there, getting front-row seats to his brother’s seizure. Ben wasn’t epileptic. None of them knew what to do about with it. And Luther rushed forward first. Sweet, dumb Luther. Always number one. ( _Always came first!_ He hated his brain sometimes.)

He tried to stop Ben from hurting himself, wrapped him in a bear hug and pinned his arms to his sides. Ben’s face was tucked over his shoulder, still jerking arrhythmically.

And with a vague, trickling shock, Klaus realised that the strange portal was to whatever hellscape birthed his powers. It was growing, bleeding an odd, glowing black over his sides. The light that usually emanated from it was changing its quality in some indescribable way. Klaus wondered if it was in colours human eyes couldn’t see. The air smelled like vinegar and rotting flesh.

Allison had unfrozen just enough to shout—”Luther! Something’s wrong, get away—”, when Diego tossed a rock that hit Ben in the head. And—really, Diego? Hitting the _person having a seizure in the head?_ Daddy hadn’t taught any of them de-escalation, but _really, Diego?_

But the stupid thing worked, somehow. Ben went limp and Luther relaxed his arms. He rolled off Ben, turned his head away, and vomited on the floor. Luther tried to to get his legs under him, but stopped halfway through the motion to groan and clutch his stomach.

“Guys, I don’t think I can,” he tried to vomit again, clenched with the effort of it from the base of his spine to the back of his neck. He hacked up bloody bile and coughed wetly.

“Klaus, Diego, get Ben. I’ll help Luther.” Allison was blinking back tears, but her face was set. Good old Allison. You could always rely on her to do what had to be done.

That was that. Klaus automatically reached for Ben’s shoulders, but Diego pushed him away. “If you drop h—h—h—him—” he didn’t say more. Didn’t have to. His face was pale and nearly gaunt. Klaus could see where his height had outpaced his weight, where he had had to grow up too fast.

He reached for Ben’s feet without another word. His ankles were so small and vulnerable, under his academy shoes and socks. But goddamn, he was _heavy_. Where was Five when you needed him? (Right, he’d tried to time travel and given himself a heart condition.) Together, they somehow dragged their brothers out of the dark.  


 

Ben was in a coma. Luther went into quarantine the moment they got out of the cellar. Apparently, he had major organ damage and acute radiation sickness. It was most likely fatal. Klaus stopped listening after that. Luther was going to be the most annoying ghost. He would tell Klaus what to do and how to dress and who to be. He’d try to big-brother him from the afterlife, even though _they were the same age, Luther._

Dad was still talking, probably describing something horrific in neat scientific terms. Klaus could see that Five had also stopped listening, and was staring right at Dad’s temple. Probably thinking about space-time equations or sheet music or how slowly and painfully Luther was going to die. Klaus had not the faintest if any or all of those were true. Five had always been his own man and his own monster. He had pulled even further away from the rest of them after his own little accident.

Allison and Vanya were still listening, though. Allison was blank, almost, like her pain had sucked the vitality out of her. Her eyes were still red-rimmed. Vanya looked intent and focused. How like Dad she looked. Maybe that was what Dad had decided her purpose was, after she had failed to develop magic powers at birth. Becoming him. But still, the flat, worried set of her mouth reminded him of the girl she used to be.

After a few eternities, Reginald finished talking and dismissed them. They scattered instinctively, back to their own little hiding places. Allison went to see Luther. Vanya and Five went back to their rooms. Klaus went to Ben.

Luther was living in a disused room, on a different floor to their bedrooms. It was airlocked twice, and only Dad was allowed in. Klaus visited him, tried to cheer him up. Even used the terrible puns about living in a bubble. Luther sighed more fondly than usual. It was awful. Allison visited him at least twice a day then went back to her room and locked the door. Klaus never saw Vanya or Five there.

Three weeks after that mission, they all came down to breakfast at 6am. As usual, they stood behind their chairs. As was quickly becoming usual, they tried to ignore Ben and Luther’s empty spaces. Dad came down the stairs, settled in front of his own chair. He looked displeased. Later, Klaus would wonder if he had noticed anything unusual about that, had any premonition. He didn’t think so.

“Children. Your brother is deceased, as of three hours ago. Sit.”

As usual, they sat. As usual, they did not speak during mealtimes.

Later that day, Allison left first.

  


Ben was still out like a cracked bulb. Vanya sat at his bedside nearly as much as Klaus did. Probably, dad had nothing else for her to do and she couldn’t exactly go to Luther. No, that was cruel. Klaus still remembered how Ben used to slip her illicit books, mass-market paperbacks and lurid romances. How they used to put their little dark heads together, hold solemn discussions and giggle. 

Klaus sat at his bed and dreamt about him waking up. He nightmared about it never happening. He thought about praying over Ben, and he wondered if God was offended by agnostics in foxholes and at bedsides and he never got around to actually doing anything. Luther hadn’t shown up yet, and Klaus was _not worried about it._

Then Ben woke up.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Leave a comment, if you like.


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